FAQ
=Joining the Game= Who You Can App Any fictional character from television, movie, graphic novel, manga, comics or book canon. Keep in mind characters must be aged down to a teenager or you must apply for them in the position of a teacher. You may also app well developed OC's and canon OC's. Character Limit Players may apply for THREE (3) characters per application cycle. You may not play more than two character from the same canon. Otherwise, there is no cap on the numbers of characters a player can apply for, so long as they pass activity consistently. Powers / Abilities (08.31.12) #If the character you apply for has no powers, you may choose one for them. *You can use this structure to help with characterization! a big part of the lives of people who have discovered they have powers is learning to use them, and what has happened to the character in the past because of the powers. be creative, and remember that choosing an ability that fits with the character's history/personality can help with the process. #Any characters entering the game that possess powers (be they genetic, or magical, etc.) will retain them, but please keep in mind the following: *The character's full powers may stay intact. However, any students should be weaker than staff/staff NPCs. Any staff member should be weaker than staff NPCs. This is not to say that were a student member to fight an staff member that they would lose. However, their chances are far reduced. *There are more in-depth guidelines at the Power Levels page, including a numeric system and examples. Changing PB Is not a requirement. This depends on how old your character looks as they are in canon, and if you want to use a different face. We're willing to suspend disbelief (let's face it, we do it every evening with the CW) but if your character is meant to be an adult (mid 20's and beyond) in canon, we'd encourage picking a new played by. The same guidelines apply for both live action and animated characters. AU Backstories This is part of your app. We want to know where your character came from, what they've been doing and how they grew up. This might vary some from your canon as your character now is from the same universe that Talanton is in. There's no such thing as a slayer, a time lord, the Avengers or the X-Men; just folks with powers. Keep in mind that AU does not mean the character in its essence changes. A teenaged Doctor from Doctor Who should still retain all those aspects of personality. Reentry To The Game Any character removed from the game may apply again at the next cycle if they would like to rejoin. =Gameplay= After Acceptance (09.01.12) *You can see a guide of what happens the day your character first arrives HERE. *!The first week of every month is an off day. There will be a 'required' orientation post put up by the Headmaster for open mingling. Characters won't have any classes until an OOC week later. *We post for the start of each day on Sundays, but don't hesitate to start posting before that; it'll be understood that it's forward-dated! The official posts are more there to help facilitate mingles and keep you on track of which day it is. *Please remember that only students and staff may enter the campus. The pendants they received upon acceptance allow only the wearer to do so. In addition, please refrain from having them bring anything larger than they can carry (multiple trips are fine) with them without asking a mod first. *Once you've been accepted, the mods will have made up a Character Page with the basic information about your character. You're not only free, but encouraged to edit and fill in more information on this page! It'll help other players get to know your character. Remember: it is not mandatory! Students #Upon arrival, students are checked in by Ara Van, who will also give them information on their room mates and teams, their talisman, a schedule, a map of the Campus Proper, and a copy of the student handbook (complete with a letter from Headmaster Reginhard) #After entering the abandoned hotel and checking in, characters enter the campus close to the school building, alone -- the housing/dormitory is near. Because no one without a talisman can enter the campus, students' mommies and daddies cannot help them bring their luggage into the school. They will be left in the lobby of the hotel used to enter the campus. Teachers *Teachers will have received their class schedule, rooming information, talisman, office room number and other administrative info before arrival. Also keep in mind that teachers were contacted by the headmaster of the school to come work at Talanton. Things To Do Outside of fight the monsters when they attack, they can join clubs (or start them) like the glee club, the comic book club, the baking club. They can join sports and participate in house leagues in basketball, soccer, cheerleading, etc. They can pass notes in classes, get in trouble or get away with it. They can loiter in the hallways, the common room, the dining hall or school grounds. They can conduct study sessions to cram for the big exam coming up in Abilities Defense. They can pull pranks, get into fights with fellow students and sneak out after curfew with their friends. In-Character Consequences Depending on how much it's flaunted, the NPCs might take notice and punish bad behavior. You'll be able to decide when you make the post whether you want the character caught or not. Be warned, if it becomes very regular the headmaster may notice and deal with it appropriately. Notes may be read aloud in class if a teacher picks them up. In OOC terms, this means the mods may inflict IC consequences on characters for continuing to break IC rules. This will mean detention after school, an extra report on why sneaking out after hours is dangerous, suspensions for staff etc, etc. They are all things that can be handwaved or that your character can post about, depending on how you want to handle it. Activity Requirements *!If you do not have a post/thread with 5+ comments from your characters within by the first AC, you will be dropped. *Be active. That's really it. Every two months an AC report will be put up in the OOC community. At that time you'll be expected to respond and tell us what your character did that month. Things like: **"This month Buffy talked to Donna Noble, the Doctor and Rose Tyler. She fought the trolls when they invaded and she got in trouble for passing notes in class. *We will use a tag system and we will look at tags and see who's being active and who's just making one comment to a post and then dropping that thread. If we feel your activity is a bit low, we'll poke you about it. Unless you have posted to Ditching Class that you are on hiatus, responding to the AC is a MUST. Even if it's just to let us know that you failed miserably because things got busy; we'll understand! *Two AC's of doing nothing and you lose the character. We're all here to have fun and people have to play their characters in order for that to happen. Tag Formatting *We're flexible here and action spam and prose are both fine. The general rule is use the format that the poster is using. Some situations like passing notes in class work better in an action spam format. Others like sneaking out might work better with prose. All interactions with the exception of passing notes, texting and phone calls will be face to face. *There is no network here. Mobile phones are strictly forbidden in classes and will be taken up if a student is caught with them. What If I Don't Want/Like My Roommate? Learning to get along with those that aren't like you is an important life skill. You may apply to the headmaster for a new room mate but you'd better have a very good IC reason and the headmaster is unlikely to be inclined to change your room mate. Staff Rooms Staff members get single rooms complete with an attached bathroom and kitchenette (think decently furnished hotel room). There are at least two on each floor occupied by students in the dormitory, similar to a TA in college dorms. Pendants / Talismans / Necklaces? They are what allow students and staff onto the Talanton campus, as well as allowing special species to carry on with a more school-friendly life (allowing vampires to walk in the sun, for example). They are tied in with what powers the barrier that keeps Talanton between two worlds. They are gold and vary in sizes from being as small as a thumbnail to as large as Flava-Flav's clocks; your character wears the size they choose. Each one has Talanton's symbol on it, shown in the link above. If removed by the wearer, they will be unable to cross the threshold either to or from Talanton's campus, stuck at whichever side of the barrier that they were on when they took it off. Special Species (Vampire, Werewolf, Etc) In general, the pendants will provide the necessary adjustments for characters with special needs to play freely. Let us know about anything out of the ordinary in your application and we can make more arrangements if need be; such as providing a secure place for a werewolf to transform. Game Time + Classes 1 OOC week = 1 IC day. Monday and Tuesday are mornings. Wednesday is noon/early afternoon. Thursday and Friday are the end of the school day. Saturday and Sunday are night and late night respectively. Posts can always be backdated and slightly forward dated. Hiatus / Drop Post to Ditching Class with the appropriate tag (!drop or !hiatus). For hiatuses, give us an approximate return date no longer than 1 month from the start of the hiatus. Weather Anyone wondering about weather for any given dayweek, google up that Sunday's NYC weather. Spoilers? (09.01.12) After polling the playerbase in August, it seemed that everyone was amenable to us making our mod notes public, as long as they were clearly marked as spoilers! On this wiki, if there are spoilers on any given page, you should see a buffer blurb before them to mark where to stop scrolling. For the most part, they will be under the last section of a page which will be titled "Spoilers." Yep, that spoiler horse is dead and we are beating the crap out of it. Mod Plurk (09.01.12) Found here! Feel free to fan it and look out announcements, but it's not mandatory and anything game-changing will always be posted to the OOC community. NPC Opt-Out (09.01.12) If there's ever an instance where you'd rather not have the potential of an NPC barging into a post or thread, throw up a note in the subject line and that'll be that! Remember, you can also revoke it later on in the thread and request NPC interaction, too! What Information Does My Character Have Access To? (09.04.12) The information you're given as players about the canon of the game (the bestiary, classes, locations, teachers, the NPCs) is all eligible IC knowledge. This excludes anything marked with spoilers, now that we've made them public. So, anything that we've released to the players that would qualify as general knowledge in any school system and isn't a spoiler is considered fair game. Character Death (09.16.12) Death is permanent, for those who have no way to be ressurrected. For those who are, there's a little snafu when they come back in that they will have lost their talisman -- they will be back in NYC for one day before they can receive a new talisman and return to the campus. You will not have to interact with or request one from an NPC, it can be completely handwaved. =OOC Experiments= What's All This About Mod Threads? Guided Plot Threads are, bluntly put, an experiment. Characters thread as usual, but using hints and guides from a mod that provides a checkpoint every so many comments, they're designed to reach a goal-- what that goal is depends on what the characters decide to do during the thread. We run these to start plots, to reveal important information about the world of talanton and to throw characters together who might not otherwise have a reason to interact closely. They're starting off small, with just a few characters per thread. they aren't as intimidating as they look, and we want them to provide players with the sense that they have an effect on the world they're playing in. That alongside character development and building CR comes forward motion and worthwhile exploration. It may take a little getting used to. narration and self-reflection on the character's parts is not discouraged, but it also demands a good amount of action, decision-making and communication between muns. The Wiki (09.01.12) Character Pages Upon acceptance, the mods will create a character page with basic information about the character. Players are free and encouraged (though not required!) to expand on these pages and add personality notes, information about their powers, and growing relationships. Bestiary If you have an idea for a creature you'd like to put into the game, there are a few steps you need to take: #Use the IJ post to submit your idea and get an approval from a mod. #Once approved, try your hand and use the bestiary template. If you use the template, take a look at the other pages in the bestiary and make sure you include all of the other information as well. *→ If you'd rather not create the wiki page, let us know when you make your submission, and we'll take care of it! =Any Questions?= Ask them HERE. Category:OOC